The resulting rift is known as the Great Schism (or, more specifically, the Great Western Schism, to distinguish it from the East–West Schism between the Roman and Orthodox Churches). Between 1378 and 1417, the Roman Church was divided between two—and, ultimately, three—competing papacies, each claiming to be legitimate and each denouncing the heresy of the others.

The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople administered an enormous intellectual shock to Europeans, yet its wider political and economic impact was minor.

Ordinary people could now afford a better diet, including dairy products, meat, fish, and vegetables. As a result, Europeans became better nourished than they had ever been—better than many are today. The improved health of the population also caused improved fertility and birthrates.

This devastating mortality had significant environmental implications. In central Europe, some 400 towns and villages became depopulated and disappeared. Around Paris, more than half the farmland became wasteland or pasture due to the absence of workers and decreased demand for food.

Cistercian monks followed Benedict’s Rule, but in the most austere way possible. They founded monasteries in remote areas, far from worldly temptations. They shunned all unnecessary decoration and elaborate rites.

A major player in maritime trade since the ninth century, Venice had already benefited enormously from the Crusades, furnishing the ships and supplies that transported and sustained the waves of aspiring conquerors.

y the thirteenth century, thousands of Jews—entire communities—were making their way to Poland. The favorable conditions they sought are exemplified by the Statute of Kalisz (KAH-leesch), issued by Duke Bolesław the Pious in 1264.

n 1215, they forced him to set his seal on Magna Carta, a “great charter” that defined the barons’ rights while limiting those of the king. Key principles of Magna Carta: taxation with consent, trial by jury, parliamentary representation Magna Carta established some important principles that would continue to shape the laws of England and, eventually, its modern colonies: the king could levy no taxes without the consent of the kingdom, no free man could be punished until he had been judged guilty by a jury of his peers, no one could be arrested without a warrant, and no unqualified person should hold public office. The charter also established a representative body of barons: Parliament (French for “talking together”). Above all, Magna Carta expressed the then-novel idea that a ruler is bound by the law.